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INTERVIEW WITH MARION BURKE
F.e.H.S. GRADUATE 1921
Fergus County High School Board Member, 1937-1955
June 20, 1978
BY ANNA ZELLICK
F.e.H.S. GRADUATE, 1935
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO- A.B. 1941; M.A. 1945
LECTURER, COLLEGE OF GREAT FALLS AT LEWISTOWN COLLEGE CENTER
PREPARED FOR DR. RONALD B. MAnSON, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS AND LEWISTOWN SCHOOL DISTRICT NUMBER 1
MR. DAVID L. MOODIE
MRS. ROBERT L. JOHNSON
MR. AL MCRAE
MRS. DONN R. PENNELL MR. WM. E. BERGER'
MR. JOHN THUNE' MR. ALAN e. FOLDA
MRS. CHARLES W. WICKS MR. FOY MCCOLLUM
, SUCCEEDED BY MR, GEORGE THORSON AND MRS. JOE e. WICKS FOLLOWING ELECTION APRIL 4,1978,
This is Anna Zellick I am interviewing Marion Burke, at his home 815 Seventh Avenue north. Today is June 20, 1973. Mr. Burke attended local schools, and was
graduated from the Fergus County High School in 1921 and from University of Montana in 1925. Later he served on the Fergus County High School Board from
June 1937 to January 1956.
Burke, it gives me a great pleasure that you are willing to share with me some of your memories and highlights of your education and career in Lewistown and your
experiences on the local Fergus County High School Board. As I indicated earlier, Dr. Ron Mattson, superintendent of School District No.1, and the School Board feel
keenly that there should be a recorded history of the local school system. This, of course, involves many people. In addition to the students, faculty, administrative
staff, and parents, such a history also involves those who volunteered their time and services on both boards: Fergus County High School and School District No.1
that were unified on July 1,1970. In your instance, you volunteered almost 18 years of continuous service. So with all of this as background, tell us a little about
yourself. When were you born?
Burke: I was born June 23,1901, right here in Lewistown. In fact, I was born on Boulevard Street, between 7th and 8th Avenue.
Zellick: Was there much of a do at that time?
Burke: No, the town was pretty scattered. As a matter of fact, about all the traveling you did, was by horse back and carriage or foot.
Zellick: Who was your father?
Burke: My father was Marion I. Burke Sr. He had come to Montana when he was a boy, seventeen, from King City Missouri. He came in 1887 directly here to
Lewistown. Letters from L.S. Butler, a farmer friend already here, stimulated my dad's curiosity about the Wild West. As soon as he came here, he got himself jobs
working for various cattle outfits most of which were using the open range. For a limited time, he was even a foreman of the very well-known Horseshoe Bar Ranch
on Plum Creek.
Zellick: How very interesting. This was one of the finest ranches in the country, at that time. It was established by Henry P. Brooks who came here, according to
various sources, either in 1878 or 1879 with the financial backing of T.e. Power who has gone down in history as the "Merchant Prince of the Plains" during America's
Gilded Age.
Burke: Like many young, men in the 1880's and 1890's and early 1900's, when our school system was be, --, set up, my dad worked at various jobs. He operated a
meat, market. Then later on, he became the chief of police of Lewistown. Oscar Helsang was the night policeman. There were the only two on the force at that time.
This went or until about 1906 when he went into business with Joe Hofstetter, called the Sanitary Dairy. About 1915, they also got into the sheep business and by
1918, Hofstetter took the dairy and Burke the sheep. The partnership was dissolved. All milk delivery was by horse and glass bottles came into use during this period.
Zellick: This was the era when milk was delivered to each consumer at his doorstep in a horse drawn buggy.
Burke: I think when they first started they took the large cans around and measured what the customer wanted. The milkman poured the milk into the customer's
container. Then the dairyman got modern, and he delivered milk in glass bottles, in pints and quarts.
Zellick: And I suppose that the use of glass bottles spelled an expense. They had to be purchased.
Burke: Oh, yes. It was 'quite an addition. And it called for a better carriage to deliver14, and it revolutionized things all the way around.
Zellick; Ail this is most interesting. Jell, as you said, you were born in 1901.
Burke: I'd like to tell about our family tragedy which tells something of the times we lived in back then. It was on April 25, 1905, my older sister, Lucy, my younger
brother, Frank Phillip Burke, just three years old, and I who was five years old were walking down Third Avenue on the Power Mercantile side of the street when a
runaway dray team belonging to Ira Wilbur turned off of Main Street and swung over to the side of the street we were on. They had been working on the building and
had a pile of ladders which the wagon hit and knocked down on us. Lyounger brother was kill-d, but my sister and I escaped without serious injury. At that time we
were living in a house which was setting on the ground where the present Post Office now stands.
Zellick: Tell us more about your accident. Did your family collect any insurance, and did your family go to court?
Burke: No, that was accepted as an unavoidable accident. As far as I can remember, and I never did hear otherwise, my family never was reimbursed and it did not
take the matter to court. It was considered an unfortunate accident for which MD one was at fault.
Zellick: It wasn't very long before you found yourself in school. Which school did you attend first?
Burke: I attended the Hawthorne School, and my teacher was Miss Clara Main who later became the librarian at the Lewistown Carnegie Public Library, for many

In this interview, Lewistown residents Marion and Esther Burke discuss their early memories and experiences in Lewistown, Montana, including their work, local residents and customs, homesteading and ranching, organizations and businesses, and with an emphasis on education and the local schools.

Creator

Anna Zellick, F.C.H.S. Graduate, 1935, University of Chicago, A.B. 1941; M.A. 1945. Lecturer, College of Great Falls at Lewistown College Center.

Genre

newspapers

Type

Text

Date Original

1978-06-20

Subject (keyword)

Depressions--1929; Sheep Ranches; School Boards;

Subject (AAT)

Schools; Dairy Farms;

Rights Management

No copyright restrictions

Contributing Institution

Lewistown Public Library, Lewistown, MT.

Publisher (Original)

Prepared for Ronald B. Mattson, Superintendent of Schools and Lewistown School District #1

INTERVIEW WITH MARION BURKE
F.e.H.S. GRADUATE 1921
Fergus County High School Board Member, 1937-1955
June 20, 1978
BY ANNA ZELLICK
F.e.H.S. GRADUATE, 1935
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO- A.B. 1941; M.A. 1945
LECTURER, COLLEGE OF GREAT FALLS AT LEWISTOWN COLLEGE CENTER
PREPARED FOR DR. RONALD B. MAnSON, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS AND LEWISTOWN SCHOOL DISTRICT NUMBER 1
MR. DAVID L. MOODIE
MRS. ROBERT L. JOHNSON
MR. AL MCRAE
MRS. DONN R. PENNELL MR. WM. E. BERGER'
MR. JOHN THUNE' MR. ALAN e. FOLDA
MRS. CHARLES W. WICKS MR. FOY MCCOLLUM
, SUCCEEDED BY MR, GEORGE THORSON AND MRS. JOE e. WICKS FOLLOWING ELECTION APRIL 4,1978,
This is Anna Zellick I am interviewing Marion Burke, at his home 815 Seventh Avenue north. Today is June 20, 1973. Mr. Burke attended local schools, and was
graduated from the Fergus County High School in 1921 and from University of Montana in 1925. Later he served on the Fergus County High School Board from
June 1937 to January 1956.
Burke, it gives me a great pleasure that you are willing to share with me some of your memories and highlights of your education and career in Lewistown and your
experiences on the local Fergus County High School Board. As I indicated earlier, Dr. Ron Mattson, superintendent of School District No.1, and the School Board feel
keenly that there should be a recorded history of the local school system. This, of course, involves many people. In addition to the students, faculty, administrative
staff, and parents, such a history also involves those who volunteered their time and services on both boards: Fergus County High School and School District No.1
that were unified on July 1,1970. In your instance, you volunteered almost 18 years of continuous service. So with all of this as background, tell us a little about
yourself. When were you born?
Burke: I was born June 23,1901, right here in Lewistown. In fact, I was born on Boulevard Street, between 7th and 8th Avenue.
Zellick: Was there much of a do at that time?
Burke: No, the town was pretty scattered. As a matter of fact, about all the traveling you did, was by horse back and carriage or foot.
Zellick: Who was your father?
Burke: My father was Marion I. Burke Sr. He had come to Montana when he was a boy, seventeen, from King City Missouri. He came in 1887 directly here to
Lewistown. Letters from L.S. Butler, a farmer friend already here, stimulated my dad's curiosity about the Wild West. As soon as he came here, he got himself jobs
working for various cattle outfits most of which were using the open range. For a limited time, he was even a foreman of the very well-known Horseshoe Bar Ranch
on Plum Creek.
Zellick: How very interesting. This was one of the finest ranches in the country, at that time. It was established by Henry P. Brooks who came here, according to
various sources, either in 1878 or 1879 with the financial backing of T.e. Power who has gone down in history as the "Merchant Prince of the Plains" during America's
Gilded Age.
Burke: Like many young, men in the 1880's and 1890's and early 1900's, when our school system was be, --, set up, my dad worked at various jobs. He operated a
meat, market. Then later on, he became the chief of police of Lewistown. Oscar Helsang was the night policeman. There were the only two on the force at that time.
This went or until about 1906 when he went into business with Joe Hofstetter, called the Sanitary Dairy. About 1915, they also got into the sheep business and by
1918, Hofstetter took the dairy and Burke the sheep. The partnership was dissolved. All milk delivery was by horse and glass bottles came into use during this period.
Zellick: This was the era when milk was delivered to each consumer at his doorstep in a horse drawn buggy.
Burke: I think when they first started they took the large cans around and measured what the customer wanted. The milkman poured the milk into the customer's
container. Then the dairyman got modern, and he delivered milk in glass bottles, in pints and quarts.
Zellick: And I suppose that the use of glass bottles spelled an expense. They had to be purchased.
Burke: Oh, yes. It was 'quite an addition. And it called for a better carriage to deliver14, and it revolutionized things all the way around.
Zellick; Ail this is most interesting. Jell, as you said, you were born in 1901.
Burke: I'd like to tell about our family tragedy which tells something of the times we lived in back then. It was on April 25, 1905, my older sister, Lucy, my younger
brother, Frank Phillip Burke, just three years old, and I who was five years old were walking down Third Avenue on the Power Mercantile side of the street when a
runaway dray team belonging to Ira Wilbur turned off of Main Street and swung over to the side of the street we were on. They had been working on the building and
had a pile of ladders which the wagon hit and knocked down on us. Lyounger brother was kill-d, but my sister and I escaped without serious injury. At that time we
were living in a house which was setting on the ground where the present Post Office now stands.
Zellick: Tell us more about your accident. Did your family collect any insurance, and did your family go to court?
Burke: No, that was accepted as an unavoidable accident. As far as I can remember, and I never did hear otherwise, my family never was reimbursed and it did not
take the matter to court. It was considered an unfortunate accident for which MD one was at fault.
Zellick: It wasn't very long before you found yourself in school. Which school did you attend first?
Burke: I attended the Hawthorne School, and my teacher was Miss Clara Main who later became the librarian at the Lewistown Carnegie Public Library, for many